Zimbra vs. Scalix

Hello everybody,

I am not sure if this is the right Forum.

Due to an outage of my system I started investigating SCALIX. This is simular to Zimbra.

Here some experiences that I like to share. My personal feeling is that Scalix is faster than Zimbra. The German translation is excellent. But there is no anti-virus nor anti-spam integration. You have to do that by yourself.

About the pricing: There are 25 poweruser included e.g. Outlook and Evolution connector. But no iSync connector.

So as I have only few users I get the Outlook connector free of charge. I think ZIMBRA has to think about theit licencing policy.

My personal feeling is that Zimbra has some advantages. But for small companies Scalix the the better deal.

Fred,
I'm sorry to hear that. We welcome opinions, and are looking to improve the product.

I have kind of an interesting take on this particular subject because I switch from Scalix to Zimbra.

Just to put things into perspective, Scalix has been around a lot longer than Zimbra. They also licensed an already functioning product from HP.

Zimbra is really in a class totally of it's own. Although the zcs product contains many seperate applications, the webui and ajaxyness is all zimbra. They have helped pioneer the ajax interface in the industry.

Scalix is faster on the webui side of things. I'll agree on that point, but what you have to consider is that once you go back, you're gonna be stuck. What I mean by that is they are a 1990's technology, stuck in 1990. They try to emulate and expand. . .but they are built upon a stuck framework.

Zimbra, on the other hand, will keep innovating. Take for example the new "PUSH" IMAP feature, the upcoming "Offline Zimbra", Chat, Zimlets, Mobile support. . .the list goes on and on.

As far as translations. . . .well, I guess if Zimbra had offices in Germany like Scalix does, Zimbra would have better German translations.

I invite to you be a part of the Zimbra Community and to help in the German translations. We're always looking for help. Take for example the French Translations (look in the developers forum for that).

We are SOOO greatful for the community that has built up. So many great people help to build an excellent product. You can be a part of that.

We are a community of administrators who want the best in messaging. There is no doubt in my mind that Zimbra is the best.

Feel free to private me with any questions, as if I can't answer them, I promise I will get you someone who can.

Sincerely,
jholder

(PS- In the way of SPAM intergration. . .SPAMASSASSIN and Sophos where what we used for Scalix. Never got it working right. Things got so bad, that we had to hire an outside vendor to host our mail. I have since moved to a different company)

My problem from the very beginning with Zimbra is the fact that there is no free Outlook or ISync Connector for free or even to pay. I run a small company with only 5 Users. It make no sense to puchase 25 complete licences. Evan a M$ SBS is cheaper then.

What I expect from Zimbra is an alternative. Eather also some free Connectors for a limited size of poweruser or a fair price for let's say 5 Connectors for small businesses.

My problem from the very beginning with Zimbra is the fact that there is no free Outlook or ISync Connector for free or even to pay. I run a small company with only 5 Users. It make no sense to puchase 25 complete licences. Evan a M$ SBS is cheaper then.

What I expect from Zimbra is an alternative. Eather also some free Connectors for a limited size of poweruser or a fair price for let's say 5 Connectors for small businesses.

Regards,

Friedmar

Sounds like you might be a perfect fit for one of the Zimbra hosting partners. Check out the list here and see if you can find one that works for you. Get all the goodness of Zimbra without the headaches and costs of having to manage your own email infrastructure.

Sounds like you might be a perfect fit for one of the Zimbra hosting partners. ....

Except that isn't an option for my small business. I run a law office. My calendar may well have information in it I wish not to share under any circumstances. I was terribly excited about zimbra and set up the OS version on an old laptop today after reading it will sync with mac's ical program. Obviously, I didn't read closely enough because after I got it set up, I went after how to set up my calendar to talk to zimbra and slowly realized that I wouldn't be able to do that.

So, I have to spend $875/year to get that feature (not worth the added convenience of two way calendaring -- right now I just have my secretary maintain the calendar and I copy it to my computer -- slightly inconvenient but free), or sign with some host which as I mentioned before, I really can't do.

Not to sound bitter, but I'm totally cut out of this business model. And I'm going to be sleepy as heck tomorrow after staying up this late.

Except that isn't an option for my small business. I run a law office. My calendar may well have information in it I wish not to share under any circumstances. I was terribly excited about zimbra and set up the OS version on an old laptop today after reading it will sync with mac's ical program. Obviously, I didn't read closely enough because after I got it set up, I went after how to set up my calendar to talk to zimbra and slowly realized that I wouldn't be able to do that.

So, I have to spend $875/year to get that feature (not worth the added convenience of two way calendaring -- right now I just have my secretary maintain the calendar and I copy it to my computer -- slightly inconvenient but free), or sign with some host which as I mentioned before, I really can't do.

Not to sound bitter, but I'm totally cut out of this business model. And I'm going to be sleepy as heck tomorrow after staying up this late.

It might be worth reading the privacy policies of the available hosting partners to see if you feel comfortable with a hosted solution.

I found it a very easy decision to shell out a few hundred bucks for one of the most important pieces of technology in any organisation today - communication/collaboration. Buying the software also gives you other very important advantages such as proper backups, clustering etc etc. All for less than most companies spend on teabags and sticky buns per year. I was reticent at first to buy commercial licenses - I've always rolled my own opensource software in the past - but wouldn't think of going back now.

One financial company I bought it for only had 10 users but perfectly understood the minimum license fee, in fact their MD was concerned that the software was too cheap and wasn't a 'proper' solution

It might be worth reading the privacy policies of the available hosting partners to see if you feel comfortable with a hosted solution.

The hosts may well have fine privacy policies, and setting aside whether it's reasonable to trust someone based on a privacy policy, no contract is protection system compromise. I'd be surprised if the terms of service didn't absolve them of any responsibility for information loss/release caused by break-ins. Of course, the problem with privileged and confidential information is that once it's out, there's no calling it back. As a lawyer, I'm the one ultimately held responsible for breaches. Not my staff, not my host. It's simply impossible for me to feel comfortable with a hosted solution.